It Started With a Shaun Cassidy Concert...and Became an Anniversary Party

Speaker 1 0:00

Hi, this is Sean Cassidy, and you are listening to the pop culture Preservation Society with Kristen and Carolyn and Michelle and Sean Cassidy, which is not one word, but they say it like one word. Come on. Get Happy. Happy.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:26

Bringing will make you happy.

Speaker 2 0:31

Hi everybody. Welcome to our very last minute, very off the cuff, very bleary eyed and incredibly exhausted recap, episode of the most amazing weekend, celebrating all the activities of our five year anniversary.

Michelle Newman 0:45

I'm leaving this weekend so full, like, not just my heart, my soul, my brain, everything is so full. Yeah, oh my god, I'm so tired.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:58

Yes, we're old, you guys. I just only way I could describe it like, can you imagine us going to Coachella or something sweet baby start

Unknown Speaker 1:09

at 2pm because I have to be home by 630

Michelle Newman 1:11

Can I just tell you when we got home back to Denver yesterday, I had told my husband, I want to introvert so hard the rest of this day, and possibly the rest of this week. And I said, I don't even want to talk to you. So I was sitting at my bar in the kitchen. I had my headphones on. I was watching a Christmas movie on my iPad, and I was like, coloring stuff in my journal, right? And He came in and he, you could tell he wanted to ask me something, but he so he went over and he wrote on a sticky note, and he put it in front of me, and it said, Do you want any mac and cheese? He was like, scared to talk to me, because I was like, I'm not even talking to you. I just needed to be in my own head. I needed to watch a stupid Christmas movie. And, you know, just be silent.

Speaker 2 1:59

And, yeah, and in true, you know, this is so, so textbook. I can't even believe it. You can hear that my voice is not normal, and that is because I have promptly gotten sick. And actually, truth be told, I got sick right after the Jason show, which we're going to talk about in in a minute, but I didn't tell anybody. And by sick, I mean, just like I was gonna say a head cold, but when Liam was little, he would call it a nose cold. So I just have a nose cold, that's it. But I didn't want to tell anybody, because I didn't want people to worry about me. I didn't want to bring the party down. And as Carolyn wisely said, once you say it out loud, then it's real. I have a little cold and I don't really so if I'm and now it's real. So if I just kept it down the down low, and medicated myself like crazy, nobody would know, and then I could pretend I wasn't sick. And now, now that everything's over, I can be sick and you can hear

Carolyn Cochrane 2:49

it. You need to take care of yourself.

Michelle Newman 2:51

I want to hug you, but I hugged you enough. So now I'm probably sick.

Unknown Speaker 2:57

I held my breath. I swear to God, I held my breath.

Michelle Newman 3:00

But Kristen, i i So like, get what you're saying. I don't want to bring the party down. Yeah, I feel like, oh, like, I want to Mother you, but that's what I would have done. So yes, you're right. I would have then been constantly like, I'm worried about Kristin. Like I would have said at the hotel room at night to my husband, like, Oh God, I feel so bad for Kristen. I hope she's I would have kicked into mothering mode. Like, do you need anything? Should I bring you something? Are you sure you don't have to go tonight? Or, you know, I would have been like, mothering you so for that, but, but at the same time, but at the same time, I'm like, oh, I want to give you a hug.

Carolyn Cochrane 3:36

Well, I think that's partly, at least for me, why the whole weekend was so exhausting, on top of, like being on which, yeah, talk about as we go through our weekend. But it's also that mothering piece for me was was kind of on high alert, like when we were at the concert with all the friends we had brought. You know, even Saturday night at our live recording, like our audience is everybody, okay? That? That just wipes me out, and I feel like I can't be present. I really have to work, work on that. But yeah, if I had known Kristen was not feeling well, God sent you over. Yeah, I don't know, I would have had been drugged the entire weekend. Yeah. Well,

Michelle Newman 4:18

it's true. We all, we all are people pleasers, for sure, but Carolyn, you are the queen of people pleasing. And I don't mean that as a criticism. That's just an observation. And like you said, that's something you're working on, but you were you. I could see it in you. I could see and on Sunday for sure, making sure where we supposed to be and making sure everybody knew and felt, felt okay, like they didn't have to worry about anything.

Carolyn Cochrane 4:44

Yeah, Carolyn got a little snippy at times, but it is what it is. All right. Well, let's, let's start. Let's tell everybody about our incredibly fun, Soul filled, exhausting weekend. I am going to start with our first. Friday morning, bright and early. Okay, day that we started at the Jason show. Okay, you guys remember, we have been on on what's it called again?

Speaker 2 5:15

Yeah, it's just called the Jason show, right? Yeah, the Jason show. This is exactly what we're talking about. Like. We're having trouble forming words, and we're trying to record a podcast episode. What are we thinking

Carolyn Cochrane 5:24

I do? I just remembered what what I wanted to say. So originally, Michelle and I, well, let's take it back a little bit. Originally, when we decided we were going to see Sean on Sunday, November the 10th, we were all excited. I still lived in Minnesota. I did not know when we bought those tickets that I would be living in Pennsylvania, right? And so it was going to be okay. I'll come in for the weekend. I'll see Maggie would do a little wedding stuff, and it'll be fun once I found out we were moving. Okay, well, then Kristen gets this idea maybe a week before we're getting there, since we're all going to be together, and it's kind of around our fifth anniversary, why don't I? I'm just going to pitch the Jason show and see if they want us to come on. Well they did. And then right around the same time, we're like, what we're all together, and it is our fifth anniversary. Why don't we try to do a live recording? And we'll just fit that in on Saturday night. So just so you listeners know, this went from being, oh, let's get together for Sean, to being really aware.

Speaker 2 6:19

And it went from we live here, and we're going to go see a concert together, to nobody lives here. Everyone has to fly in, and we're going to do all of those things

Carolyn Cochrane 6:28

exactly. But we did, so it was victory. And we started with Jason's show, yeah, and it, as usual, was so much fun. We all looked great. We did everyone. I just want you to know I'm having

Michelle Newman 6:40

a really good hair day. Sorry, I was having a really good hair day. That day, not the rest of the weekend, but that day, things were good.

Carolyn Cochrane 6:46

Yes, you everybody looked smashing. I must say, I've got to say I bought the sweater the night before at Nordstrom Rack that I've gotten so many compliments that I'm going to find it online. I'm going to post the link. So if you two want this sweater that nonstop, even Jason, that's how this show started. After we came out, and he said, let's have a hug line. He invited us to hug him, and we gave our consent, and we hugged and we went over to the couch like we like, and he complimented my sweater. And then,

Michelle Newman 7:19

well, let me just say, he said, You all look great, but he was looking at your really loved idea. I think at least Kristen and I should get one, because there it's kind of a PCPs sweater, like it's very, it's very a

Unknown Speaker 7:33

motif is very PC

Michelle Newman 7:35

Yes, I, I will tell you, I was nothing but excited for that. Though, yes, of course, since we only knew a week before, I was thrown into a panic of, what am I gonna wear. I had to run to Nordstrom, you know, like, three days before I left on the trip. I was like, What am I gonna wear? I will just say I wasn't nervous at all. I was just excited. And I've, I've kind of gotten to where I don't, I didn't see, like, the TV cameras, I didn't notice that as much, and I think that has everything to do with Jason Matheson. He is. He makes us feel so comfortable. He's so much fun. I like to think he's our honorary little brother now you guys, and I really think we need to get him on this podcast so we could talk longer about these top 10 things, because all of them were so fun, you could tell he wanted to talk more about Oprah's wagon of fat

Speaker 2 8:26

the top 10. I just have to tell people what you're talking about. The top 10 things that she's we went on the show with a top 10 list of the best Gen X moments as as decided by us and our listeners and the things that we really enjoy talking about. So that was our purpose in being there, is to reveal what this top 10 list was of Gen X moments. And I thought we would maybe talk about those today, but I think that's a whole episode revealing, and I want

Michelle Newman 8:52

Jason to come on because, yeah, he when we mentioned Jane Fonda's Workout and Richard Simmons, he said that he has them in his workout room. Now, like, I don't know if he means posters of them, bobbleheads, whatever, but he was excited to talk about a lot of these. But when you're on a TV show, we were on for two segments. That's like two five minute segments that is so quick. So we're going to invite him on. He's a very busy man. If he can come on, great. If not, we'll still, like Kristen said, do an episode, but we'll do an episode on the top I'll put a

Carolyn Cochrane 9:22

link in the show notes to our segment on his show as well, so you can see what we're referring to and see my really cute sweater. And

Speaker 2 9:29

if we do an episode on it, we really couldn't deep dive into these top 10 items in the in the history behind them. If we do a whole episode, we can tease it out a little bit more, because there's a lot to be said about all of the things we talked about, basically we just listed them on the show, but in an episode, we can

Carolyn Cochrane 9:45

go deeper, and, you know, the audience too, because we obviously can see the audience from where we're sitting, as well as the crew. We can see all that. And when we were naming some of those things, people were just like nodding in such agreement, and even that face, you. Out when you forgot that you knew something, and they, you know, people

Speaker 2 10:03

who, yes, we were doing everything real life, yeah, yeah, you can see that they got who screwed you face, yeah.

Michelle Newman 10:11

Well, what's funny is, when we were back in the little green room and watch, you know, there's a TV so you can watch the show that's going on before you get out there. And when they would do shots of the audience, we looked at each other and we were all the three of us were like, Oh no, the demographic is more Boomer, for sure, like they're all older than we are. But of course, like we say all the time, all generations are welcome here on the pop culture, Preservation Society, all of these things they were experiencing, maybe as young adults. And so they were hooting and hollering at every single thing we mentioned it. There

Carolyn Cochrane 10:43

was good overlap too. Yeah, it was great. Good Energy in that room.

Michelle Newman 10:47

So that was so much fun. And and, you know, when I left, I said, you know, he's like, Come back anytime. So, yeah, next time, maybe we'll, we'll go with more than a week's notice. Both times, you guys, we've been

Speaker 2 10:59

on those Okay, that's how it goes, or days, or maybe the day before, when they're like, we don't have anybody tomorrow. Can you come on? And I was telling Carolyn this, this is the fourth time I've been fourth or fifth. I think it's the fourth time I've gone on TV this year. It's been a it's been a good year for the PCPs and for Kristen Nelson, the author, in terms of media. And that first time I went on TV, I really thought I was gonna poop my pants. And this fourth time, I'm like, I'm not pooping myself. I'm

Michelle Newman 11:28

Oh, it was just fun. Yeah, it was

Carolyn Cochrane 11:31

myself up, yeah.

Michelle Newman 11:35

When she came in, I knew, like, I turned around prison and my butt to her so she could put the thing in my back pocket. I was like, but also we were we? We were all kind of conscious of, are we supposed to look out at the audience? Are we supposed to look at Jason? Are we supposed to look at the camera? Ever that part? You know, we don't ever want to do a Cindy Brady right where you're like,

Unknown Speaker 11:57

stare into the camera.

Michelle Newman 11:58

It was so much fun. But yes, we will be back on there in 2026 I know for sure. I think I'm just gonna have an outfit at the ready, guys. I'm just gonna now have an outfit that's in my closet dedicated to next time I go on the Jason show. This is what I work that throws me in a panic, that throws

Speaker 2 12:15

it does throw you in a panic. And now I've done it four times, because I've gone on TV four times. And now I have accepted the fact that every time you go on TV, you have to get something new. And I really I nailed it this time. I wore my backwards pants again, because some of you may recall when I went on the show to talk about the Scott Fenwick diaries, I was wearing pants, and he liked my pants, and I said they were backwards. And then instead of talking about my book, we talked about my backwards pants, which is not a good use of my media time. No, what's not a good but I was egging it on. It's my fault. It's not his fault. It's my fault. So I just thought it would be funny to wear my backwards pants again. And my dad texted me, he's like, You should tell Carolyn and Michelle to wear their pants backwards too. I

Carolyn Cochrane 12:53

wouldn't have been able to sit down, I'm sure.

Michelle Newman 12:58

And I was super cute. Your shirt. I was all like, I want to be monochromatic, so that I look a little slimmer on TV. And I then I was like, I'm gonna wear like, a cool look. Are you laughing? Because I didn't that

Carolyn Cochrane 13:14

wasn't a good try. Didn't work.

Michelle Newman 13:18

That's what it sounded like. I was like, I'm gonna wear a fun like, wham t like, that's, I love a good you guys know, I love a good retro graphic tee. But when I stood next to you and I loved my outfit, don't get me wrong, and I'll be wearing it again. But when I stood next to the two of you, you guys were in bright, fun color. So I kind of wish I'd have

Speaker 2 13:36

been a little more. No, no. That's I learned this from my painter, the woman who painted my house. She said, when you have a lot of bold color, you need to have some black somewhere in the room to ground it so that actually looks like, Yep, that was you. You are the grounding. It's too chaotic if we had all been in bright colors. So mine, my the thing that I got on top of my backwards pants was just like glaringly orange, and I and I loved it. And I did get a lot of comments from people about, where did you get your pants? Where did you get your shirt? Where is this from? So it means we nailed it. If people are asking us when we got our outfit links to and I love our outfits, yeah, I'm just gonna tell everybody that when I'm in, when I'm in a jam, anthropology is where I go. Anthropology should be paying me right now, because every time I go on TV, I've gotten something at anthropology, part of it because they have, they have lots of cropped things, and then it looks like full length. And I don't have to have them. Well,

Michelle Newman 14:31

guys, one thing we didn't tell you is the whole reason we're throwing this kind of last minute wrap up in is because we did have it. We do have an episode, you know, schedule ready, earmarked for Monday, but hasn't been edited yet. And none of us have the time or the brain where Carolyn does one, bandwidth, whatever you call it, to do it this week. So we're trying to make this kind of, like one of our PCPs lights, where it's quick and we don't have a lot of editing, and we have no notes, we have no research. So can you tell, like. Move on to Saturday. You guys are live. Like Carolyn said, it was kind of last minute, and our live recording of an episode was kind of an experiment, to be honest with you, so experimental. We did not know if anyone was gonna show up, but they

Speaker 2 15:17

did. They did. It was you guys. There's always that moment where you're like, we had nobody's gonna come. We had

Michelle Newman 15:23

to get extra chairs. Yeah, we had to get out extra chairs from the back room in the bookstore. And that was really exciting. It to us. It looks a full house. It was a full house we

Carolyn Cochrane 15:35

couldn't really had any more. And no been like, as fun and intimate as it was, it was the perfect amount, right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 15:42

And at that point, only we had only had four RSVPs, so all we knew was that four people were coming. And as you know, when people RSVP, half of them don't come. So I'm like, oh my god, we're gonna have two people. So to have a full house was more than gratifying, and it was great because it was the people who walked through started streaming through the door. First of all, you're surprised, because you're like, I thought it was gonna be two people. There were old friends, there were new friends. There were listeners we had never met before. We were under the impression that we knew all of the local listeners. We don't. There were no like, we don't know you. This is so nice to meet you.

Michelle Newman 16:17

Yes, yeah, yeah. It will never be. How should I say this and again? Please, just excuse all our brain fog right now. Yes, please. It will never be not bizarre. That's I'm just going with it. It'll never be not bizarre to me when someone is waiting while I'm having a conversation with someone else, and then they say, oh my god, I'm just I feel like I'm meeting a celebrity. I've listened to you guys for five years, and this is so exciting, and I feel like I know you. And I'm a little nervous right now, and I just am always like, oh my god stop. First of all, thank you. I love you for for feeling you know, it's just we feel so humbled, and so it just makes us our hearts so full and it makes us so happy. It's always just so bizarre when people are like, just because we have these conversations here, they feel but I get it. I would I feel the same way towards podcasters I listen to so it was just so sweet and so nice.

Carolyn Cochrane 17:14

Wouldn't you agree that it's just as exciting for us like it? That might seem weird, and maybe when you get to be smartless or Dax Shepard, you're not as excited to meet your listeners. But for me, it is. It's reciprocal. It really is, as much as you are excited to meet us, we are just as excited to meet you guys.

Michelle Newman 17:32

Yeah, for sure. Do you guys remember how back in the day not listen? I'm not comparing us to Taylor Swift, by any means, but let me just keep going with this little analogy, because it works for me in my head, back in the day, when I when my girls were smaller, and I took her to, like, the Red Tour, or, you know, the those tours before, way before eras, right? So we're talking like over 10 years ago. And even when she would win an award, she would get so much criticism. Because when everybody, when you know an arena, is cheering for her and clapping at the end of a song, she would stop, and she would just look all around with like this expression on her face, like, like, like, open mouth, like, I can't believe it. And she would do that on awards shows too, and she did it at many at the end of many of her songs on these tours, to the point where she got a lot of flack for it and a lot of criticism that people thought, oh God, give me a break. She's being so, like, over dramatic, like, she can't believe this, many people are cheering for her. And I never took it that way. I always was like, Are you kidding me? She's being very genuine. In my mind, she can't believe these people like her, like, it's

Unknown Speaker 18:47

like she's enjoying every moment. Yeah, you Yeah.

Michelle Newman 18:50

That's kind of how I feel when we get people that that say to us, oh, I can't believe I'm meeting you, or I've listened to you guys for so long, and whatever, I am genuinely taken aback. I'm genuinely taken aback and just so grateful that they do and I feel really it just makes me feel really good that the that what we do and what we say is is touching people, and that can sound cheesy, and that can sound, you know, just but it's not,

Speaker 2 19:22

yeah, that's right. And they were so excited to be there, so to be sitting, to have them in the audience, the look on their face when we start talking, it added so much drama to the live recording. It felt so, so good. We forgot to mention, by the way, that this recording was taking place at Big Hill books in the middle of the bookstore. Big Hill books is where I work. And Beth Thompson is the owner of the book, and she graciously allowed us to record an episode in the store. It was such a great place to do this. It was a beautiful backdrop. And then, of course, people go book shopping after it was so much fun, but to sit there and do this thing. We do, which is very solitary. We sit in an empty space by ourselves, and we look at each other on a screen and to now look up, and instead of seeing Carolyn and Michelle, I'm seeing these happy, eager faces. They because they know that we're going to say Marshall will and Holly they know that we're going to say big wheel generation. They're gonna they know we're gonna say, and now we'll be preserving. I'm Carolyn, I'm Kristen, I'm Michelle. And after that first when we said the the intro, and Michelle says, and we are your pop culture preservationists, and they all start clapping and cheering. And it was so exciting. It was so exciting. It

Michelle Newman 20:39

was also really fun to have have laughter in real time. Great. We say things, you know, we're recording here again on our like Kristen said, on our screens, and so we laugh at each other. We think we're funny, but the things we said that were funny, we got a laugh,

Speaker 2 20:55

and that's kind of cool. Yeah, it was really great.

Michelle Newman 20:59

And don't I guess on we'll be here all night. I grabbed my mic and stood up and started walking. It was fun. And that episode, everyone listening now, that episode we recorded is will be coming to you, but not until December 1, because even though we've done all our celebrations and oh my gosh, people have been so nice on social media posting their own happy fifth anniversaries to us, which we'll take like we're gonna, we're gonna consider the entire month of November. Yeah, keep them coming. Exactly. We're gonna consider that November is our fifth anniversary month. The actual date of our first episode was November, 27 2020, and that's coming to you on Thanks. That's that. That's anniversary is on Thanksgiving. So the episode we're recorded at Big Hill books live will be dropping on Monday, December 1, just FYI.

Speaker 2 21:50

And keep in mind, when we're recording this, we're really like letting them into the factory, because this was not a performance. This was not something that we practiced. This is we did it exactly as we do it, where we we go, and we do our own preparation, and then we come and we look at each other, and we ask each other questions, and we talk about what we're supposed to talk about. And that comes with a lot of messiness, like, Oh no, no, don't do that. No, take that out. Where would I? Where did I? Lost my place, right? So there was an awful lot of that that they got to observe. We didn't clean it up for them. We were literally letting them into our process. And that was really cool. It was sort of like when you go to, like, on the field trip to the dairy farm when you're a kid, and there's, like, the glass, and you get to watch behind the glasses they milk the cows. That's what

Michelle Newman 22:38

it was like. So we were the cows in this

Carolyn Cochrane 22:41

situation. Yeah, maybe that's great. I want to be compared to a cow, but whatever. But in terms of the actual technical stuff, I'm hoping you guys that this episode will sound just as wonderful, I think, as the rest of ours. But know, ladies and gentlemen, that again, you're never too old to learn new things. This was a whole new setup for us. We did not record the usual way we do, because we're obviously the three of us are together, so we're not using some of the platforms we've used before. I had to learn some new things in a very short amount of time. So one, we prefaced the episode with, you know, it might sound a little different, and we're letting you guys know again, it might sound a little different, but I just want to pat myself on the back, because this was really zero to 60 in a very short amount of time. And it's again, a testament to the fact that you're never too old to learn something and just take the chance it's maybe not going to be perfect. But much like when we started this five years ago, we knew it wasn't going to be perfect, and if we waited, we would not be in your ears right now. So just know that it doesn't have to be perfect for you to try the thing. And people are gracious and understanding, and our expectations are usually a little higher than those that were.

Speaker 2 23:56

That's what we found, really. That is so true. People are gracious and understanding, especially when you say, You know what? I just learned this. I'm just learning how to do this. I'm just going to give it a try. And it's not perfect. We, I think, as women in particular, and women of this age, we really do think that everything has to be perfect, and that right?

Carolyn Cochrane 24:13

We'd never start some things if that was the case. But I must say, there was one, actually two perfect things at this event. You guys, Kristen ordered these cakes, and they were one. They tasted delicious, but two, one of them this cheat cake. It had our faces on it. It was that image where we're, like, talking on the phone and everything. You guys, my face was on a cake. Was that ever gonna happen? So fun. So thank you, Kristen.

Speaker 2 24:40

Really cute. And we did get good pictures. I think the other most exciting thing about that that live recording, was getting to do the toast together with people. It was so fun. We had them do the toast with us, and we all had champagne, and we all clinked our glasses, and it was just such a commune. Moment in this experience, which is usually solitary. You know, we may raise our glasses to each other on the screen, but we can't actually Clink. We're not

Michelle Newman 25:08

together, and we're raising, like our water bottles from our recording. Yes, sorry, Pepsi, right. I decided, though I think going forward in season 18, I'm gonna actually start every time we record. I'm toasting you guys with actual champagne. I've just so it. I'm gonna go get a whole bunch of those little tiny bottles of Prosecco. And every day it's a recording day. I just know that Michelle gets to have a little bit of

Carolyn Cochrane 25:31

a till the end. We don't need a tipsy Michelle during that

Speaker 2 25:37

tipsy Michelle, that sounds like your nickname, Tipsy Michelle, Okay, should we move on to, like, the big brouhaha? The thing that started this weekend was when Sean Cassidy announced that he would be performing in Burnsville, Minnesota on November 9. And of course, we're going to get tickets. I mean, it's the reason we exist, so duh, we're going to get tickets. And that blossomed into a five year anniversary weekend, and so we, we were lucky enough to have a block of tickets to share with our local listeners, with people in the local area who are listeners of the podcast. So we were going as a as a group, as a large group, and there was some complication to this, because, as you know, we have met Sean Cassidy before. There have been times where we've been called backstage to talk with him. So we knew that there was a possibility that we could see him again. But we also didn't want to make any assumptions, but no or any promises to any promises, right? We have these people. We cannot assume that if he says, I'd love to see you guys after the show, we will be like, can we bring our 10 friends? Like, we can't make that assumption. So that made it a little dicey when we're making arrangements with this group of people. And so I I was very cagey. Then I would say, You know what? This could change, so please just keep checking your email, just in case. And then at 1.1 of the people texted me, and she's like, What do you mean? Just in case, what are you talking about? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know we might like, want to I don't know. I just don't know we didn't want to disappoint people, because we can't assume that Sean Cassidy will be able or have the energy or the time to go through to meet 10 strangers. We don't know. We don't know, but we we knew that we would love, if it was possible, we would love to take them with us on this experience, should it come to be. But again, you can't bring it up, because if it's not going to happen, it might just be too much to ask of him. So the good news is, in a very last minute way, we eventually got word that we would be invited to the VIP experience, which is a question and answer period with Sean Cassidy. And then we found out when we got okay, this is maybe this is just me, but I didn't get this when we arrived, we found out we would also be going backstage after the show and and our people had no idea. So for us to be able to provide this for them was so incredibly gratifying. I can't even tell

Michelle Newman 28:05

you, Yes, you know, he has over the past two years. I mean, it's true, we've become very friendly with Sean Cassidy, and he's so generous us and such a supporter of our podcast. We we we can't thank him enough for just how he is, how he supports our podcast, but at the same time, we know he is on a tour. He needs to protect himself, his time, his voice, his energy, so we have no expectations or assumptions in a situation like this, and we respect any decision he's going to make. So that's when he when he, what you know, said, Yes, I want to say hello and yes, you can bring your friends back with you that are with you. We were it was just another example of just what a cool and generous and giving man he is, and he is so great, gracious and nice, and we couldn't be more grateful that he did that, our friends. You know, yes, it's always fun. I don't if I'm speaking for the two of you. I think I am, but by now, I have a really hard time correlating who I'm talking to to that person that was on the cover of Tiger B because to us now it's true, he's just normal and a friend, I have to really stop and think, because he's he had, he was had drinking tea. I guess at when we came back, he just closed to us like his. He wasn't feeling that well, his throat was a little scratchy. And when Sean Cassidy looks at the three of us and asks us, Did I sound okay? Did I? Could you hear it? I felt my voice cracking a little bit. Could you guys hear it like

Speaker 2 29:47

when he's asking he apologized. He apologized performance. And really, what are you talking about?

Michelle Newman 29:54

You sounded incredible. You were rocking it on the rocky songs. You. You were, I mean, my gosh, when he sings those songs, like the song he sang in blood brothers, and when he ends the show with the song that his mother is known for, for music, man, it was so powerful and beautiful. But anyway, I just feel like for us, we were kind of like, Oh Hey Sean. Like, it's always fun to see him. But our friends were like, Oh my God. Like, Kristin, I'm gonna pee my pants, you know. So we can't thank him enough for being so generous to us, not only us, as he always is, but to to say, Sure, bring your friends back. That was really cool.

Carolyn Cochrane 30:33

He's generous to everyone, like all the people that asked him Q and A's in the beginning, he really listens to your question. He's really thoughtful with his answer. He is really touched by the stuff that people shared. And I've got to say this go round. I hate to say it like that, like I've had several go rounds, but this time, interacting with him was really I just noticed, for lack of a better word, kind of the humanity, like he was so touched by all the people that mentioned his mother, so much so that he told us, when we got to see him afterwards, that after the Q and A where a lot of people brought up how special his mother was to them, he called her. He called her on the phone, and he told us that like he was so he just felt so strongly that she needed to know how much people were sharing their stories about her with him, and then some people bring gifts for him, and he shared with us, and I got teary. So whoever the listener is out there, well, maybe they're not our listener, but whoever the person was at the concert, they wrote him a letter, and he read it in between the Q and A and his concert, and he shared with us that this person wrote kind of a list of meaningful moments in her life, that Sean was somehow a part of whether it was a song was playing on the radio when something happened in her life. He said they were very just normal moments in life that his voice or his presence, kind of wove themselves into or wove themselves into. And he was so touched by this letter that he shared it with us, and you could hear it. He wasn't that Sean, like you said, Kristen or Michelle on the record cover on the walls. He was a man who was realizing just how important in a way, he was in people's lives, and he was not at all taking that.

Unknown Speaker 32:27

He's very humble,

Carolyn Cochrane 32:30

yeah, so touched by that. Yeah. So anyone who ever has reached out to him, he it's, it doesn't go unnoticed. I guess I just say

Michelle Newman 32:38

he and I think, yeah, yeah. Because I think back in, you know, 1978 7778 7778 7980 it probably did and, and, no, like, kid, exactly. It was very understandable that you just kind of are there for that, like the screaming and the whatever. And this

Speaker 2 32:53

is cool 19. I think at 19, he was like, unlike most, yeah, I really do. I think he was a very unusual human I think he's an unusual teenager who actually got that and was humbled by that, even at the age of 19. It's

Michelle Newman 33:07

such a great show. And yeah, and we're not gonna go listeners, we're not gonna really go into detail about his show and the songs he sings and the stories he tells. Oh, but God Damn, he's funny. Gosh, yeah, yeah. He's a little self deprecating, but which I think is always funny, but about like the team, when I say that, I mean self deprecating about the satin pants and the whatever. But then he'll turn around and go, but I could still wear them today, yeah? Like, I'd still look good in them today. We're not going to do a detailed dive into the concert, because we are still hoping that before this concert tour is over, Sean is going to come back on the show and talk about that with us. So stay tuned for that. Fingers crossed for that. We have a good indication that he's going to so let's just say that. Let's just say this, please, right now, anyone listening, if you have not already seen the show, because this started in September, this North America tour, if you haven't already seen it, because he's done east coast, I think, go on. Sean cassidy.com go to he has all the all the places he's going. You guys, this tour is going through the end of March, which is crazy. It is his biggest tour that he's ever done, even when he was a teen idol. So this is crazy. It's so fun. It's so good. Grab a couple of your friends. I grab your husband. My husband had, oh, my husband also did like Sean Cassidy's music, but didn't you know, because his sisters played it all the time. My husband had a blast, like he was singing, he was dancing. So grab someone to go with. Go by yourself, if you have to. But just go. Just find a city near you and just go. There are still tickets available, especially for some of the dates that are in 2026 and we can't stress enough that it is a good night, it is a

Speaker 2 34:55

good and it's a good night and it's a good time. Very much because of. Of the man that he is. And I want to go back to these two things that we've been talking about, which is the moment where he's like, Was it okay? Did you hear my voice crack and and when he calls his mother and three incidents, and then when he shares us the the letter that he got from the listener. Because I think there's a myth that I've been trying to bust, that women are attracted to big man on campus energy. This is a myth. This is wrong, and it's a myth that I've been trying to dispel. Actually, in both of my books, both Rory Calhoun and Scott Fenwick have moments of vulnerability that they share with others. Because when a man is brave enough to acknowledge his vulnerability and share his concerns with others, it is. It's like the ultimate act of trust, and it brings people closer. So I use this as a literary device to help the reader feel closer to the crush and to make the and make Rory Calhoun and Scott Bennett worthy of Millie's love. It's not needy, it's reflective, and it shows that they care. And I swear to God, I think caring is the thing that is ultimately attractive, and this is what we have in this man who used to be a boy who is now a grown man. And the reason he still has us because he's now in his 60s. He's not the 19 year old in the satin pants anymore, but he still has us because of this humanity and this vulnerability and the self deprecation and the and the caring. He still does this in the palm of his hand.

Michelle Newman 36:25

And the way he speaks so highly, he take you know of his mother, of his wife, the way you can just tell and all of his stories, and the way he answers questions, he reveres his wife. He respects and reveres her and his mother. And this is just, it's not i It's not anything that is a surprise when you you see all of him together, he's so much more than just the guy in the satin pants who you know, sings that's rock and roll. And that was a surprise

Unknown Speaker 36:57

to her. I'm sorry, Carolyn, do you want to go? Oh,

Carolyn Cochrane 36:59

no, I want to follow up just what on what you were saying about the vulnerability, and you know, the characters that you create in your books, there's a moment this happened both times I saw him that in the Q and A people are like, can you reboot the Hardy Boys? And he's jokes around like, oh, would it be the Hardy grandpas? But he has said that he it has to do with, like, the rights and stuff, but he would love to do it, because he wants to create a TV show that really shows, well, one relationships between brothers, and what that's like, because there's not really anything out there or has been, that shows what that relationship is like, and also to depict boys In in this way kind of that you're talking about Kristin, that they're not this toxic masculinity and Bros and all of this stuff. He recognizes that that needs to be shown to more people, and that's the angle, if and when any show like that would come on, or that he'd be a part of that, that's what he wants to highlight and hold up. And I just that just hit me in a really special place, as the mother of a son, yeah, and for him to recognize Yes. And to your point, Kristin, that's who he is, right? And he knows that that needs to be held up more as special. And that's really the sexy, that's

Speaker 2 38:17

that we it is really the sexy, and it's it. And I know that the you know, one answer to that could be like, oh, yeah, like, men don't have enough programming. But this is different. This is showing men that there is a variety of ways to be a man, and one of them is this, and it's actually a really important way to be. And let's bust that myth. This is what women want. We want to be closer to you, and we can't do that if you're the big man on campus. This is a really and the world is just a better place with men like that in it, we're all in a better place if we have men like that

Carolyn Cochrane 38:50

in and who better to tell that story than the Harry Styles of our generation? Okay, guys, I mean, we all were, people were throwing their underwear at him like, you can't tell us that that's not attractive, because he's an expert. Let's just say, yeah.

Michelle Newman 39:04

Well gosh, if we haven't sold all of y'all listening on, going on, Sean cassidy.com/tour and finding a city near you to get a ticket, because you're going to get all of that, plus you are going to get to do run, run, and that's rock and roll and a lot of fun stories and all everything we just described, you don't have to be able to go backstage and say hi to him. You don't even have to go to the Q and A you will get all of that just from the concert itself. I promise you, you will.

Speaker 2 39:31

And it's so interesting, because there is it can be scary to meet your idols, because what if they don't live up to your ideals? What if they're not the same? There's some worry about, what if they're not the same as when I love them when they were 19? Of course, they're not the same. If they were, that would be creepy, yeah. And we're talking about both like, what they look like and how they act, because they could look like they've been, you know, smoking three packs a day for 40 years, and then they're ashing in their in your drink. That could be what you the person you fell in love with. Could be that person, and there's a fear to experience them now, because what if they're not what you thought they were? I've passed up opportunities before because of that. I didn't go see Davy Jones at one point because I'm like, how's he gonna do? Daydream believer at 65 I didn't want my bubble to be burst. They can't be what they once were, but they could be even better, and that is what people found out. We know this about Sean Cassidy, but they were all agog, they had no idea. And I'm looking at everybody's posts today, and everybody is commenting about who he is as a person. They're talking about him as a writer. They're talking about his how authentic he was. They got so much more than they bargained for.

Michelle Newman 40:42

Yeah, they did. They did, all right, guys, I think we should probably wrap this up.

Speaker 2 40:49

Oh, wait. Can I say one more thing, this is really interesting, you guys. So one of the people in my group said to me as we were leaving, she said, do you still get that crushy feeling like when you were 10. And I said, No, I don't I. He feels like I had to think about it for a minute so I could explain it. I said, he feels like my old boyfriend, the one who got away, and I might look him up on Facebook to see how he's doing, and I'm really happy when I see that he's happy.

Michelle Newman 41:20

Yeah, that's so sweet. Yeah, it's

Unknown Speaker 41:23

different, right? It's different.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:24

And we just yeah, we would have wished him well when he was our old boyfriend, and we wish him well now, when he turned out really well. I think there's a little part of us that wants to say, see, we picked, well, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 41:37

we got a good picker, as my

Unknown Speaker 41:38

brother's been idle, you got a good picker, right? I

Michelle Newman 41:54

think it's nap time. It's for me, it's 10 o'clock in the morning. I think it's

Unknown Speaker 41:57

nap time. I'm gonna take a tubby and go get in bed.

Michelle Newman 42:01

Oh my gosh. I am definitely taking care of myself the next few days by doing the things, of course, that I still need to do to, you know, make my life and my house run, but at the same time, I think I'm going to be kind to myself. And you know what I wrote in my journal, I just want to share with you guys as I was just kind of, I was just kind of bullet pointing things that were just, you know, I was downloading, is what I was doing in my journal. I didn't have the capacity to write beautiful thoughts. I was just like, oh, this happened. This happened. And at the end of the day, I put and this is just who I am. I felt like, should I even write this in my journal? I'm just so proud of us. I'm really proud of us. Of course, I had written all this stuff about being grateful for our supporters and just so humbled by them and just so happy that we touched them. But I just kind of had to turn it back just for a little second and say, you know, after five years and looking at what we did this weekend, I'm just really proud of us. You guys, that's at the end. I don't even have any more to say about it. I'm just, I think that goes without saying all the reasons I'm proud of us, but yeah, I'm proud of us. I don't know

Carolyn Cochrane 43:09

what I would do without this. Honestly, this has been on so many levels for me, therapeutic, a growth experience, all these things I could never have imagined what my 50s and now going into my 60s would look like? And I am so excited, and I'm so grateful to the two of you and to all of you out there who listen and support us. You have no idea. I am proud of us too.

Michelle Newman 43:37

I am too. You know what people say? Our conversations fuel them and get them through hard times. And they look forward to Mondays. They look forward to these conversations because them. They love to sit in that joy that they felt, or that the joy that these memories bring up. I mean, that's exactly what it does for me, and I think for you too, you guys too. So that's how I feel. I feel grateful for this podcast for getting me through hard times and for fueling me. Even though we're the ones on the other side of the mic, we feel exactly the same. So we absolutely love I love you guys. I love all of you listeners more than you guys could know how to end the episode and with everybody.

Speaker 2 44:21

Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much, and I'll see you next time. That's right.

Carolyn Cochrane 44:29

Are we gonna do a toast? Should we do a toast? Yeah, toast. We won't do any, okay, for

Michelle Newman 44:33

whatever. And I don't have champagne, but

Speaker 2 44:36

no, I've got a Kleenex. I've got some Kleenex coffee left. Let's in the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times, two

Michelle Newman 44:49

Happy Days, Two Little House on the Prairie.

Speaker 2 44:55

The information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society. Podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards, Nanu. Nanu, keep on truckin, and May the Force Be With You. You. Let love in it will keep moving on.